Note:Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team.Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.

This week is another great example of why people should care about polls and rankings.It’s not just about the BCS championship game.Teams with higher rankings get better TV, radio and newspaper coverage…and sometimes they even help determine conference championships.

This week, one conference is depending on the BCS to sort out their champions:the Big Ten.Also, the Big 12 came very close to having a repeat of 2008.

The Big 10 still has the three-way tie I discussed at length last week betweenMichigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State.Again, if you went in order of head-to-head victories, that is how they would be ranked:Michigan State > Wisconsin > Ohio State.Michigan State should be going to the Rose Bowl.Instead, they won’t be going to any BCS bowl because they are the lowest of the three in the BCS rankings.

Here is the actual rule that is causing all of the fuss (section B.5.e):

“If three teams are still tied, and all three teams have the same winning percentage of all games played, the highest-ranked team in the final BCS standings shall be the representative.”

Since all three teams have the same winning percentage (11-1 overall), The BCS standings are used.However, the rules don’t account for this year’s situation.There is no contingency for when there is a very clear set of head-to-head results, but all three teams haven’t played each other.The Big Ten obviously puts a lot of weight behind head-to-head results.It is the first applicable tiebreaker (B.2):

“If there is a tie for the championship, the winner of the game between these two teams shall represent the conference.”

However, the rules incorrectly throw out the head-to-head results when an extra team gets added to the mix, but when they don’t all play each other.The Big Ten set up the schedule for Michigan State, and the Spartans did what they needed to do considering they weren’t slated to play Ohio State.However, B.5.e robs Michigan State of the bowl game they deserve.The Big Ten, based on the order of their tiebreaker rules, states that head-to-head results are the most important factor in breaking ties, but then falls back on the BCS to resolve the current situation, trumping the head-to-head results.

The rules should have stipulated that the BCS would be used only when all three teams have a win over each other.That would make a circular reference that would be impossible to resolve by head-to-head results.However, that isn’t the case this year.Michigan State is the clear winner of the head-to-head matchups, and is the clear loser of the Big Ten rules.Some fans (particularly Wisconsin fans) don’t want to hear that, but it is the Big Ten that set up head-to-head results to be so important, and nobody complained about that.If they wanted BCS rankings to trump the results on the field, the Big Ten should have made the BCS rankings the first tie-breaker.Then the current situation would make sense.Instead, we end up with a mixed message.Head-to-head results are most important, but we’ll ignore them in this case.

The Big 12 and its tiebreaker rules, have a much easier situation to deal with this year.Since all three teams (Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M) are in the same division, they are all guaranteed to play each other.However, there is still the chance of all three having the same conference record and one win over the others, which is the case this year.Oklahoma beat Oklahoma State.Oklahoma State beat Texas A&M.Texas A&M beat Oklahoma.They all have 6-2 records in conference.It would be up to the BCS to solve the problem, except that Texas A&M has on out-of-conference loss (Arkansas), so the Aggies’ overall record knocks them out of the title game (section b.1).That leaves Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and RIGHTFULLY leaves the decision to the head-to-head results.That sends Oklahoma to the title game. The BCS has nothing to do with the Big 12 this year as some sources are reporting, although it did in 2008 when Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech tied and forced the Big 12 to resort to the BCS rankings as well.

If you’re reading this column, you likely know the importance of polls and rankings.However, there are still many who think they only affect two teams at the end of the season… the ones going to the BCS Championship.It is up to us to help people understand that there is so much more at stake for many teams, throughout the whole season.That’s why Pollspeak exists.Mistakes (or corruption) in the polls can potentially cost schools millions of dollars, and can cause fans immeasurable frustration.

Note: Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team. Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.

Wisconsin earned some serious style points this week. By “style points”, I mean stylishly destroying Indiana 83 to 20! Getting that many points has to impress everyone. It definitely impressed the voters since the Badgers remain the highest ranked one-loss team in the BCS human polls (No. 5). However, it didn’t impress the computers one byte. BCS computers are mandated to exclude margin of victory in their rankings. In fact, the computers actually dropped Wisconsin an average of two places from last week (from 10 to 12). BCS computers have no sense of style.

Outside the top four, there are two ranked, non-BCS teams: Utah and Nevada. This week’s polls, particularly the Coaches’ Poll, are a lesson in just how important record is to ranking. If you remove, Utah and Nevada, every other team falls in line based on their record: the first four teams have no losses, the next 7 have one loss, the next 5 have two losses, and the last seven have three losses. The other polls aren’t quite as delineated as the Coaches’ Poll, but they’re close.

It’s safe to say that the number-one factor in determining a team’s ranking is its record. That’s why Pollspeak always advocates using head-to-head results as a tie-breaker only when two teams have the same number of losses. On that note…

Head to Head Lines:

The ACC is a bit tricky to figure out this season. Especially when there are four teams with 7-3 records that have only one head-to-head result each: NC State, Florida State, Maryland and Miami. Maryland only received one vote this week in the AP, so let’s focus on the other three:

· NC State beat Florida State

· Florida State beat Miami

· NC State and Miami don’t play

They all have the same record, so in the makeshift playoff we call the regular season, the teams should be ranked in this order:

· NC State

· Florida State

· Miami

However, all three human polls have Miami on top, Harris Interactive has FSU at No. 25 and none of them have NC State in the top 25. It’s exactly the opposite of the head-to-head order. That means a bunch of people got it wrong; however, there are so many wrongdoers, I’m going to try something different. I’m going to give kudos to all of those who got it right. Here is their chance to stand out and shine in the bright spotlight:

That’s still only 14 out of 60 voters who got it right and 13 more who maybe got it right. More than half of the voters got at least one pair wrong based on head-to-head results. OK, I can’t go without at least one tiny, off-handed mention of one person who got it all wrong:

Last week in both the Massey and Sagarin Ratings, Missouri was No. 1.The Tigers were buried by Nebraska, so that means there are still No. 1 teams in the BCS dropping like flies.This week the only No. 1 teams are Oregon and Auburn, and with upcoming games against Chattanooga and Washington respectively, it’s likely the curse will be truly broken next week.(Cue wolf howls.)

Aside from the computers’ clear No. 1 (Auburn) and the polls’ clear No. 1 (Oregon), the biggest battles this week between humans and computers are being fought over Missouri and Alabama.The Crimson Tide (BCS No. 6) are the most underrated by the computers with a computer average of 15 and a poll average of 5, while the Tigers (BCS No. 12) are the most underrated by the voters with a poll average of 15 and a computer average of 4!If these disagreements continue, our future enslavement by the evil computers is all but assured.

Syracuse is currently the highest ranked Big East team.(Cue creepy organ music.)They aren’t in the top-25 yet, but they are the closest to it. They are sitting at No. 27 in the AP, and if they can continue winning, they will certainly earn their first ranking since 2001.However, it won’t be easy.They still have to face Louisville, Rutgers, Connecticut and Boston College.While none of those teams received a single AP vote, it is still a murderer’s row by Big East standards this year.The conference as a whole is currently ranked 7th in both Sagarin’s conference rankings and Anderson & Hester’s conference rankings… just below the independents and Mountain West respectively.Meanwhile, Pittsburgh, with three losses, is the only team that controls its own destiny towards the Big East crown.

The ACC is nearly as chaotic with three teams hanging on for dear life at the bottom of the polls:Virginia Tech, FSU, and N.C. State. (Cue horrific scream.)Virginia Tech and NC State control their own destinies in the ACC, while FSU needs to run the table and hope for an N.C. State loss.

In the AP, I’d like to introduce the star of the week (our Michael Myers if you will), Mark Anderson of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. (Cue theme from “Halloween”.)He is this week’s most extreme voter, which I can only assume he pried away from the cold, dead hands of Jon Wilner.You don’t have to look long at Anderson’s blood-red ballot to be frightened.He gives Hawaii their highest ranking at No. 19…over other two loss teams like South Carolina, which he ranks lowest at No. 24.With Boise State No.1 and the highest ranking for Nevada at No. 18, he has an obvious and creepy WAC bias.Even more terrifying, he ranks Missouri highest at No. 7 OVER Nebraska at No. 10.They have the same number of losses and Nebraska just murdered Missouri last weekend (forgive the overly brutal Halloween-speak).He also has Wisconsin lowest at No. 16 while he places the team they strangulated, Ohio State, highest at No. 6.My blood curdles at his ranking Iowa six places over Arizona and his other results-be-damned decisions.

Anderson did get one thing right.He was one of only two people to vote Michigan State better than Wisconsin.The Spartans beat the Badgers by two scores in early October.They have the same record, so why wouldn’t you vote Michigan State higher?Which brings us to…(cue creaking door)

(Severed) Head-to-Head lines:

The Big Ten poses a truly scary situation this week:

·Michigan State beat Wisconsin

·Iowa beat Michigan State

·Wisconsin beat Iowa

·Wisconsin also beat Ohio State

How can this be resolved using head-to-head results and records?Here is the general order they should be ranked:

·Michigan State

·Wisconsin

·Ohio State

·Iowa

(Arizona should also be over Iowa, although comparing the Wildcats to the other Big Ten teams will be a source of debate.)

Why is that the proper order?Michigan State, Wisconsin and Ohio State all have one loss.So they are ranked in order of their head-to-head results.While Iowa’s dismemberment of Michigan State was very impressive, they have two losses, which drops them below the other teams. (Cue dropping scream.)

There is only one voter who got all of that correct: Doug Lesmerises, writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.Lesmerises has consistently shown himself to be an unbiased voter who puts a lot of thought into his ballots…ever since he freaked out fans back in 2009 with his first regular season ballot, and went public with his “no preseason bias” method of voting. (Cue rattling chains.)

I’m running long, and I’ve already covered plenty of head-to-head issues, so let me take this opportunity to answer the criticism of a few irate Iowa fans who have accused Pollspeak of an Iowa witch hunt.That is absolutely not true!I think Iowa is a GREAT team.However, I also think Arizona and Wisconsin are great teams…until proven otherwise. For now, the Wildcats and Badgers have one less loss and a win over the Hawkeyes, who I have already said is a great team.Those who vote differently may be biased or may not be paying attention.They may also just be smarter than the rest of us as some Iowa fans suggest.Since it is Halloween, we’ll allow these people to hide behind the guise of impartial fans for now.However, next week, nobody will escape the scrutiny.Pollspeak will be coming after your rotten, bloated preconceptions and your slimy, maggot-covered ballots.Until then… sweet dreams. (Cue Vincent Price maniacal laughter.)

Note:Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team.Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.

For the second week in a row, a team outside the top two in the human polls is the BCS No.1.All three human polls have Oregon No. 1 and Boise State No. 2.Yet, Auburn is the BCS No. 1 due to four of the six computers ranking them on top.This is truly surprising considering that, historically, the voters have slighted the Broncos while the computers have usually regarded them higher.Who would have thought that a well-respected and undefeated SEC team would need to rely on the computers to set the voters straight?It looks like it is going to take a No. 1 ranking in the human polls, for Boise State to have any shot at the title.Meanwhile, the computers are only going to make it harder for the Broncos as their strength of schedule gets worse with each WAC opponent.

Speaking of conference troubles, with the loss of West Virginia to Syracuse on Saturday, the Big East now has no representative in the AP, Coaches, or BCS top 25.They are also the only Big East teams left with 2 losses, and they both have some of the best conference teams remaining.One of them will have to step up in order to finish the season in the top 25.

Nevada is surprisingly back in the polls and in the BCS top 25 for the first time.I say surprisingly only because it is after a bye week, and their last game was a loss to Hawaii.In fact, Nevada was able to sneak in despite not appearing in the coaches’ top 25.Instead, Michigan is the coaches’ No. 25.However, the computers think better of the Wolf Pack than the Wolverines right now, so Nevada earned the BCS spot.If Michigan can beat Penn State next week, they will likely jump over Nevada.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech should be thanking the voters and the ballots they wrote in on.The Hokies made the BCS at No. 23 only because the human polls ranked them No. 21.The Billingsley Report ranked them No. 25 and the other five computers didn’t rank them in the top 25 at all.

In the AP, there is very little disagreement about who should be ranked in the top 25.A solid 18 teams appear on all 60 ballots.While 24 teams appear on at least 50 of the 60.That left Baylor just enough room to sneak in at No. 25 with only 32 votes.Congrats to the Bears on their first ranking since 1993.

Eight teams received a single vote in the AP, but probably the two loneliest votes are Mike Hlas with Northern Illinois at No. 25 and Jon Wilner with San Diego State at No. 19.Both teams have two losses, and they have only beaten one BCS-conference team between them. Northern Illinois beat Minnesota. (edited 10/26/10)

Head-to-Head lines:

Cole Harvey and Pete DiPrimio are the only two voters to rank Florida State over Oklahoma.These two teams have the same number of losses (one), and for those that forgot, the Sooners beat down the Seminoles 47 to 17 in week two.If Oklahoma loses again and FSU doesn’t, there would be reason to switch the teams, but as of right now, the Sooners have clearly proven themselves the better team.

Even with a better record and a direct win over Iowa, these three voters still rank Arizona lower.Maybe it is a Big Ten thing because these four voters still rank Ohio State over Wisconsin even though the Badgers won the head-to-head and just had another solid win over Iowa.Thankfully nobody ranks Iowa over Wisconsin, or it would be time cancel my subscription to the Big Ten Network and just stop watching them until they get a championship game.

Note:Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team.Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.Let’s start out with hearty congratulations to Nevada who earned their first AP Ranking (No. 25) since they climbed as high as No. 10 in 1948!They also sit at No. 25 in the Coaches’ Poll.Nevada deserves it for reaching 4-0 while beating teams like California and BYU.Meanwhile, with its third loss, it looks like BYU picked the wrong week to go independent.

So much for the computer’s high expectations of Texas.Last week two of them had Texas pegged as No.1.After their stunning home loss to UCLA, the Longhorns have dropped this week as low as No. 28 in the Colley Matrix. That isn’t much worse than the AP, who dropped Texas all the way from No. 7 last week to No. 21.Fourteen spots is an exceptionally large single-week drop.Of course, it still doesn’t compare to Michigan’s infamous 2007 drop from No. 5 to unranked after the Appalachian State loss.

There are still lots of undefeated and once-beaten (or more) teams out there with top-25 potential.There are 36 teams getting votes in the AP this week, but there’s only room for 25 on a single ballot.Typically the teams that voters made room for this week were Nevada and North Carolina State.Therefore, voters also needed to drop a team or two, and that lead to some tough choices.

For example, Desmond Conner of the Hartford Courant has undefeated Arizona unranked, but has a team they beat, Iowa, at No. 15.In place of the Wildcats, Conner gives one-loss Houston their only vote.Of course, that loss came from a now impressive looking UCLA team.

Ray Ratto is the only voter to leave either Iowa or Miami off his ballot, let alone leaving them both off.Ratto not only made room for Nevada and N.C. State, he also added Kansas State to his ballot.

Scott Wolf and Jon Wilner left out both Michigan and Wisconsin.Wilner was one of three to also drop USC, and in his case, replace the Trojans with Kansas State, Oregon State, Air Force, Missouri or UCLA.If you couldn’t tell already, Pollstalker tagged Wilner as the most-extreme voter of the week.It is odd that the top-three most extreme voters are the three from California.Does the Golden State have a Conventional Voting Tax to go along with their Junk Food Tax?

In the Coaches’ Poll, Big 12 members, Missouri and Oklahoma State take the place of USC and N.C. State in the top 25.

Head-to-Head lines:

There are still 8 people voting Iowa over Arizona.That’s down from ten last week, even though the Wildcats had a very narrow escape against unranked Cal.As long as Arizona can keep winning, that trend should continue it its favor.However, even a one-loss Arizona team should be ranked over Iowa except under extenuating circumstances.As mentioned previously, Desmond Conner has the biggest gap in favor of the Hawkeyes.

Two-loss UCLA didn’t receive many votes, even after their upset of Texas.However, most everybody who did cast a vote for the Bruins, remembered that Kansas State beat them in week one.The only exception is Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News, who ranked UCLA highest at No. 22, but didn’t rank undefeated Kansas State.

Solomon and Jon Wilner were also the only voters to rank UCLA over Texas.It’s hard to argue with that considering the game was at Texas and the outcome was decisive.Also, Texas hasn’t had a signature win yet (although Texas Tech may turn out to be a ranked team down the road).However, Pollspeak is generally an advocate of using head-to-head results when the winning team has the same or better record than the losing team.In this case, Texas has one loss and UCLA has two.So we also don’t begrudge any voters who rank Texas higher.

Note: When the ballots were released on Sunday, Greg Archuleta's ballot was exactly the same this week as last week. The AP reported that this was a technical glitch, and have since corrected it.

Note:Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team.Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.

Texas is fast becoming a computer darling.The Longhorns are No. 1 in both the Sagarin and Massey BCS ratings.Meanwhile the AP has Texas lowest of all the rankings at No. 7.It may be a coincidence, but the Computer Science Department at The University of Texas currently boasts a 5% enrollment increase.We’ll be watching that UTCS isn’t promising the computers more technical support in return for higher rankings.(The jokes may get better as the season goes on, but no promises, and frankly, it’s unlikely.)

The coaches have Arizona lowest (No. 16) of any BCS component or the AP.If only we could see the coaches’ ballots and how many of them rank Iowa over Arizona still.Otherwise, the USA Today Poll is pretty standard fare this week.

In the AP, Craig James is the most extreme voter this week, which is rare for a national voter.However, I doubt the fans will tag him with Bad Voter of the Week since five of his seven extreme picks were for ranks that are highest in the nation.Nebraska at No. 3, Michigan at No. 14, Oregon State at No. 15, Penn State at No. 17, and Texas A&M at No. 25.On the negative side he was one of two voters to rank Boise State (No. 7) and LSU (unranked) lowest.

We’ve finally reached a point of the season where we can start talking about head-to-head issues.As a refresher, the AP Voting Guidelines state: “Pay attention to head-to-head results.”Now, they don’t say to slavishly adhere to head-to-head results, but voters should certainly show good reason to go against the outcome on the field.So at Pollspeak, we regularly point out people who don’t seem to be paying attention. For example:

10 voters still have Iowa ranked higher than Arizona after yesterday’s late night upset.The two most extreme cases are Desmond Conner and Lisa Byington who have the Hawkeyes nine places over the Wildcats.Being from Connecticut and Michigan, maybe they didn’t stay up to see the end result. In fact, Byington still ranks Iowa highest at No. 10.

Rob long who works for Fox radio in Baltimore, has Notre Dame ranked but not Michigan State.He gave the Irish their only vote in the nation even though they have two losses, one of which was to the Spartans on Saturday.

Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald was the only voter not to rank Auburn, but strangely, he did rank Clemson.So he was also the only voter to rank the Tigers over the Tigers….that is, Clemson Tigers over the Auburn Tigers.

John Shinn of The Norman Transcript was the only voter to rank California even though they were just blasted by undefeated Nevada.However, he also didn’t rank the Wolf Pack team that did the blasting.That’s a shame because with just four more points, Nevada could have had its first ranking since they climbed as high as No. 10 in 1948!

Note: Clicking a team link in this blog will show you how everyone voted for that team. Clicking a voter name link will show you their ballot.

Virginia Tech lost to James Madison last Saturday, and two of the California voters, Jon Wilner and Ray Ratto, actually have the “Dukes” ranked on their ballots this week. Wilner has them all the way up at No. 19. The last time an FCS school received that many votes was when Appalachian State beat Michigan in 2007, which also happens to be the last time an FCS team beat a ranked FBS team.

Of course, Virginia Tech’s loss hurts themselves more than anyone (they didn’t receive a single vote), but it also hurts Boise State. The Broncos victory over the Hokies was their signature win for the year. Now there is a possibility that Virginia Tech will finish the year unranked and cost Boise State any chance they had at the BCS Championship. As it is, the Broncos lost 7 first place votes this week just by sitting at home watching the games on TV. Their last remaining No. 1 vote comes from Pete DiPrimio of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.

In terms of rankings, the ACC basically imploded last weekend. All four ranked teams lost:Miami, Georgia Tech, Florida State and Virginia Tech. Miami and FSU lost to highly ranked teams, but Virginia Tech lost to an FCS school and Georgia Tech lost to an unranked Kansas team that lost to an FCS school the week before. Miami is now the league’s only ranked team at No. 17 in the AP. The few voters who still have hope for the ACC have thrown their support behind teams like NC State, Boston College and Maryland, who each received one vote this week.

At No. 13, South Carolina is the highest they’ve been since Oct. 2007 when they climbed as high as No. 6. However, there are still a lot of differing opinions on the Gamecocks. They are ranked everywhere from No. 7 to No. 24, which is this week’s second largest spread.

The largest spread is Michigan’s, ranked everywhere from No. 8 to unranked. When Rich Rodriguez said he was going to bring the spread to Michigan, I don’t think that’s what he meant. The Wolverines check in at No. 20 overall in the AP, which is as high as they’ve been since the end of the 2007 season as well.

Florida is another team all over the AP ballots, voted from No. 3 to No. 19 for the third-largest spread. The Gators keep winning, but the voters haven’t been impressed with what they’ve seen so far. This is Florida’s second consecutive win and second consecutive drop in the polls. They now sit at No. 10 overall in the AP and No. 7 in the Coaches’ Poll.

This week’s most extreme voter is once again Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News. He’s going to make a lot of Buckeye fans unhappy since he ranked Ohio State lowest in the nation at No. 7. This is after they beat Miami handily by 12 points. You would think that means Wolf doesn’t think much of Miami; however, he ranks the Hurricanes No. 13, and only one voter ranked them better. By his own rankings, no team has beaten a better opponent this season than Ohio State. So I can’t figure out why he ranks the Buckeyes so low, and I can’t find anything related to the year 2007 to continue my trend. Okay, wait, I’ve got it… in Week 12 of 2007, Scott Wolf voted Ohio State lowest in the AP at No. 11! That may seem like worthless information, but I will still be proud of the six times I mentioned 2007 (now seven times) in this blog. That’s something no other poll-oriented blogger on CBS can claim… this week.

A couple of housekeeping notes:

Randy Rosetta of the Baton Rouge Advocate’s ballot is missing for ‘week 3’. The AP confirmed only 59 voters this week.

We’ve received confirmation that the BCS will not be ranking USC in any of its components this season… not just the Coaches’ Poll. The computer rankings will still list USC when they deliver to the BCS, but the BCS will then manually remove the Trojans and move all other teams up one spot. So we’ve now removed USC from our BCS Rankings to better reflect what the BCS will be using. That means one extra team will sneak into the top 50 in all of the computer rankings going forward. The Trojans will only appear in the AP Poll and ballots in Pollstalker this season.